LUANG PRABANG, Laos: It's 7:00 am in Luang Prabang and beneath a jagged line of mountain peaks, high-ranking communist party officials are among a small but powerful crowd gathered silently at the first tee. One swish of the driver and a white ball fizzes down the fairway, prompting warm applause as professional golf finally arrives in secluded, poverty-stricken Laos, long isolated behind the "bamboo curtain". It's a small but important step for the Southeast Asian backwater, which has watched as growing neighbours China, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and even Cambodia embraced the game. Last week's Luang Prabang Laos Open, at a UNESCO world heritage site on the banks of the Mekong, offered total prize money of US$80,000, loose change in a sport where the best players can command US$1 million just to turn up and play. But such a purse had never been offered for any sport in t...